The Live Oak Public Library System board of directors voted to fire the HR director, Jim Stroud, at a special board meeting last month. The audit alleged that the library’s HR department mismanaged payroll and used shredded personal employee paperwork as stuffing for gift baskets.
Some employees also alleged a hostile workplace and that management discriminated against them. Stroud denied the report's claims. "It's clear that there was a great effort made to keep the trustees, in many cases in the dark, regarding the finances and other issues in the library system, as well as the Georgia Public Library Service,” state librarian Julie Walker told the board at the meeting. “But now that these things have seen the light of day, it's incumbent upon all of us to act on this knowledge.”